Sheffield council brought agencies together to demonstrate how housing cannot not be isolated from social justice
If we are committed to tackling inequality for young people, then public services including housing must play a major role by thinking about working with families. This involves recognising that an individual's needs cannot be separated from the households or communities they live in, and housing professionals must seek to improve opportunities for whole households and whole communities – not just in the single service they work in.
The word household recognises that, even today, there may be members of more than one family or several generations living under the same roof. The work that Sheffield city council has been doing since 2009, by introducing a whole household approach, is a good example of a simple way to improve our public services. In a city where one in six children live in poverty, urgent action was needed.
Sheffield's scheme identified families at transition points in their lives – moving home, facing unemployment, young children starting school – who were considered at increased risk of social exclusion. The local authority carried out research to ensure that a sample of those families were consulted over more effective ways to work with them. A community activist trusted by local residents shared ideas from the local authority, so households could understand exactly what happens at these potential tipping points that could trigger positive or negative spirals for families.
It was the residents themselves who were able to design some common sense solutions to the problems that existed in their communities, which worked for them and their neighbours.
When families were asked which services mattered most to them they said: schools, benefits, housing. In addition to the division between adult and children's social care, the councils teams managing housing, schools and the Job Centre Plus had not traditionally not worked together. This needed to change.
Sheffield also identified a large number of frontline workers duplicating relationships with the same families. Once co-ordinated, these professionals were able to design more effective early and targeted intervention to help prevent households becoming excluded.
The council's different agencies then began to collaborate to tackle intractable problems that could not be resolved by one service in isolation.
Sheffield Homes raised concerns that an average annual tenancy turnover was masking an abnormally high and rising percentage turnover in the first two years of tenancy. It was identified that this increase from 25% to 33% was having a significant cost impact elsewhere upon public services. This movement was estimated to be costing the NHS upwards of £1m a year because of new GP registrations. It explained a higher in year churn in students at a range of schools. When a child arrives in secondary school after attending six primary schools in the same city we do need a fundamental rethink.
Sheffield mapped the journey that households took with information brought to the table by 53 participants from different agencies in the area to understand the root upstream causes of high tenancy turnover. Other public services needed to understand the route that tenants and their families took, from pre-tenancy through to a new tenancy, existing tenant and exiting a tenancy, to appreciate where their service provision might have greater impact on the results.
A longer research project recommended new ways to run the allocations and tenancy management service together with intervention techniqes, to prevent vulnerable families from reaching tipping point and to find shared cost savings. Yet with a complex patchwork of different housing associations and private landlords in Sheffield, as well as a changing school landscape, there is more to be done.
This work highlights why housing is not isolated from other social justice concerns. We need to take a broader approach to housing and to households and integrate housing with other public services: education, domestic violence and social care.
Sheffield council also recognised the need for new ways of working: public leaders, trained in different ways, but trained together. The authority commissioned Sheffield University and Sheffield Hallam Business School to develop a sub-regional urban leaders postgraduate programme, including customer centric and innovation modules. To date 160 managers from across local public services are using new tools and networks to tackle problems and make savings, as well as leading a culture change across the area.
Reema Patel is a former local government officer and is training to be a lawyer. Christine Megson is a public services consultant and principal consultant at Sheffield city council
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